Disregarding a significant number of ominous developments, both on domestic and external fronts, the PTI government certainly looks adamant to bulldoze laws it has designed for holding next elections, whenever they take place.
In the name of reforming the system, it had forced the national assembly to approve some amendments in election-related laws as well. Besides facilitating overseas Pakistanis to cast their votes through digital Apps, they also pushed the Election Commission to use Electoral Voting Machines (EVMs), instead of paper ballots, for the polling and counting of votes. The upper house of parliament, the Senate, refused to endorse these amendments, however.
Yet the government didn’t feel motivated to review its ideas and look for doable alternatives by sincerely approaching the opposition for broad based consultations.
With my-way-or-the-highway arrogance, the government is now determined to get the same amendments approved by the joint sitting of Parliament, as they were originally bulldozed in the national assembly. But to reach there, it needs the national assembly to pass a resolution, enabling the holding of intended joint sitting. The national assembly had thus ‘suddenly’ been summoned to start meeting from Friday, primarily to pass the required resolution.
Before summoning the current session, the government had not taken the opposition on board, although since Wednesday the ruling party legislators were constantly being told to ensure their presence in Islamabad.
In spite of the relentless messaging, the government simply failed to collect at least 84 members in the house, required to maintain quorum, during the first sitting of the session Friday morning. After the opening rituals, the assembly straight went to pass a consensus resolution to acknowledge the steadfast struggle of Syed Ali Geelani, a giant who had devoted his long life to vigorously pursue the unfulfilled cravings for freedom in Indian Occupied Kashmir.
Prayers were also offered for the soul of Sardar Attaullah Mengal, a veteran Baloch leader. But no member dared to recall what he had been struggling for throughout his life. Then, the house quickly returned to flaunt its deeply polarized reality.
Syed Naveed Qamar of Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) took the lead to seriously wonder why Asad Qaisar, the national assembly speaker, took the unprecedented decision of locking the press gallery on the first day of the current week. The President of Pakistan was invited to address the joint parliamentary sitting on that day with the advent of the new parliamentary year.
Such an address is mostly considered ceremonial, essentially displaying the democratic façade of a state. But the Speaker National Assembly surely behaved like an audacious show-spoiler. He ordered the locking down of the press gallery and the lounge.
Feeling completely baffled and stunned by his haughty decision, a large group of parliamentary reporters felt forced to protest. Instead of creating rowdy scenes, they quietly sat on the ground floor VVIP guests came to after entering the Parliament House. The silent protest was enough to forcefully expose the limits of our neither-here-nor-there version of democracy and pretenses of having a duly elected and ‘sovereign-to-all’ parliament. But Asad Qaisar is yet not willing to even blush for his conduct.
With self-righteous conceit, he rather continues sticking to a visibly invented story. A huge group of media workers had indeed been holding a protest-picket on the day President Arif Alvi was invited to deliver his address to the joint parliamentary sitting. But that protest essentially was to persuade the government to refrain from enforcing a law, designed to ensure absolute government control over media business and practices.
No doubt, most parliamentary reporters also planned to express solidarity with protesting colleagues by walking out of the press gallery, once the President reached the dais. Such walkouts are almost a routine and hardly any government ever took them seriously. Asad Qaisar opted to make ‘history,’ however, by overreacting.
He continues sticking to the story that “some leaders” of the Parliamentary Reporters Association (PARA) anxiously approached him to convey that a big group of parliamentary reporters was not willing to walk out of the press gallery during the presidential address. But their refusal to join the walkout could lead to physical scuffles in the press gallery. To prevent the imagined bedlam, Asad Qaisar instantly ordered locking the press gallery in sheer panic, without consulting a different group of journalists or seeking input from intelligence gathering outfits.
Like the rest of society, the journalist community is also divided and deeply polarized. But they never displayed their differences within the press gallery. PARA regulates the things there. Instead of differences it rather reflects consensus. Without holding any office, old timers like this correspondent are also heard with utmost deference by active members of this body. Thanks to such traditions, we never saw any bedlam in the press gallery, at least since 1985.
The story repeatedly told by Asad Qaisar sounds doubly dubious because he is still not willing to name “senior journalists and PARA office bearers”, who allegedly had approached him for telling an alarming story. He rather wants all of us to forget his overkill looking decision of locking the press gallery and move on.
Syed Naveed Qamar refused to budge and kept pressing him for answers. The Speaker preferred to stay rudely silent. That provoked Agha Rafiullah to point out the lack of quorum. The number required for it was certainly not present in the house and it had to be adjourned.
In the press lounge, parliamentary reporters kept waiting, fidgeting and yawning for more than an hour. Finally, the Speaker returned to his chair. Asked for the fresh count. The required number was still not there and the house had to be adjourned to meet again on Monday evening.
The lack of quorum on the first day of a hastily summoned national assembly session to bulldoze legislative business on fast track should embarrass official handlers of parliamentary business. Increasingly, it is becoming too obvious that a significant number of ruling party legislators are not so willing to rubber stamp schemes some self-styled wizards of the Imran government had designed in the name of reforming Pakistan. They certainly need persistent cajoling and coaxing.
Our political scene is set to become more chaotic, even if the government eventually succeeds in corralling all ruling party legislators to a joint parliamentary sitting for passing some crucial amendments in electoral laws. Lest you forget, the Election Commission of Pakistan has clearly been declared “autonomous” by our duly written constitution. And the Election Commission had already put a long list of its reservations regarding the use of EVMs on the record. It also is not happy with the means suggested for casting of the votes by overseas Pakistanis.
The Election Commission is exclusively responsible for holding free, fair and transparent elections. No government can force its hand by introducing laws that the Election Commission finds difficult to execute. It doesn’t look like the building of a showdown between the Election Commission and the Imran government only. Also important are the reservations expressed by almost each opposition party, regarding ‘reforms’ the government seems obsessed to deliver regarding holding of elections in Pakistan. To imagine the building scenarios just recall what the Election-1977 had brought to this country.